


In Search of a Remedy

by nire



Category: Wonder Woman (2017)
Genre: Angst, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Movie(s), Redemption
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-03
Updated: 2017-07-01
Packaged: 2018-11-08 14:57:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11083974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nire/pseuds/nire
Summary: After the war, Diana's path took her back to Veld, where she discovered that the survivors had taken in Isabel Maru as their doctor.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Remaining Human](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6023320) by [awomannotagirl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/awomannotagirl/pseuds/awomannotagirl). 



> Loosely inspired by Remaining Human by awomannotagirl, in which Phasma is redeemed and found happiness with Rey. Similarly, I want Isabel Maru to find redemption and happiness with Diana.

When the war ended, Diana found herself at a loss.

For some time, there was a celebration. Drinks flowed free and stories flowed freer. They made a memorial for the fallen, a wall of photographs, letters, and flowers. Steve Trevor, as it turned out, did not have many friends left, but those who still lived welcomed Diana on their table, telling her tales of derring-do that might have been more than just a little embellished. Charlie sang and Chief shared some contraband goods. Diana stayed at Etta’s place, where the bed was narrow and too soft, but the company pleasant and friendly.

But then the celebration ebbed away and duty called. Etta was relocated to the United States, Charlie went back to Scotland, Chief was recruited for requisition somewhere south, and Sameer vanished after kissing her on both cheeks and saying something about a mission.

Diana tried to take on the traditional role of Amazons as advisor and guide for mankind, but as it turned out mankind refused to even let a woman into meeting rooms. When she first arrived in London, it was Sir Patrick that heeded her words, and then it turned out he was not even one of them in the end.

She had not been away from Themyscira for a month, and already she missed it. She knew no one would fault her for going home, her mother least of all, but she could not shake off the thought that Antiope would have been disappointed. Well, no matter. She had no money and no possessions. The boat she had brought to London was nowhere to be seen. Clearly, the universe wanted her away for home a little bit longer.

But she did not have to stay in London.

She managed to convince the first mate of a barge to let her go with the ship, and in exchange she would help them load and unload. Whatever objections the crew had with this arrangement were silenced the moment she lifted a crate in each hand and placed them onboard. She might have played it up a little by jumping directly onto the deck, ignoring the gangplank altogether, but it had the desired effect.

The barge took her to the Western Front, and through a string of odd jobs, one taking her to the next place, she ended up back in Veld.

She tried not to dwell on why exactly she returned there, instead throwing herself into the task of cleaning up the village of what little remained of the people she once liberated.

The dozen or so villagers that managed to hide in their cellars when the gas hit stayed at a camp upstream where the water was clear of contamination. The first night Diana spent there, she was roused from her sleep by a scream. She was in fighting stance before fully awake.

“Doctor!” called the man, and Diana relaxed her stance.

Diana heard rushed footsteps from the other side of the camp and a woman’s voice asking, “What happened?”

Turning to see the doctor, Diana came face-to-face with Isabel Maru. The lower half of her face was covered with a scarf wrapped tight and tied behind her head, and her eyes were wide in fear and recognition. The poisoner stood rooted to the spot as Diana rushed forward and wrapped the lasso of Hestia around her neck.

“What are you doing here?” Diana asked.

Maru’s throat bobbed. “I—”

The man reached them then, taking Maru by the wrist and pulling her towards where he came from, completely ignoring Diana and the lasso. “Doctor, please, my son. Please, help.”

Maru started, answering, “Yes, of course.” If the lasso burnt her, she did not betray it. She shot Diana a glance.

Diana loosened the lasso and let Maru pull it off her, then followed her and the man to his side of the camp. Along the way, the man explained that his son had vomited blood and was now in constant pain. Maru did not say anything, her brows knitted, her pace quick.

They reached the edge of the camp, where an adolescent boy lay wrapped up in dirty blankets, a bundle of cloth pillowing his head.

“Hello, Nicolas,” Maru greeted, pressing the back of her hand to the boy’s temple and then her fingers to his neck. She then pulled out her stethoscope and listened to the boy’s breathing.

“We will get you better,” Maru announced. “Monsieur Renard, come with me and help me get my equipment, if you please?”

Renard looked at Maru, then at his son.

“Monsieur, please. I need to be sure I do not give him something he is allergic to. The good Madame will watch over Nicolas, won’t you, Madame?”

Diana looked at Maru, who tensed under the scrutiny but held her gaze level. Twice she had seen the measure of Isabel Maru: once, with her mask ripped open and Ares’ taunts echoing in the sky, and minutes ago, when she promised her help unflinchingly despite the lasso tight around her neck. “I will,” Diana said at length, and they left.

Diana knelt next to the boy, stroking his hair gently. “ _Ça va_ , Nicolas?”

“ _Bien_ ,” answered the boy with the characteristic feeble bravado often demonstrated by mankind.

“The doctor, is she from here?” asked Diana.

“Came to us some days ago,” he answered. “Helped set up the camp.”

“I see. Did she say where she was from?”

Nicolas shook his head. “Don’t think she has anyone.”

“No,” Diana agreed, “I don’t think she does.”

They were quiet for a while, the only sound being Nicolas’ shallow breaths. Then, he said, “You’re the one who freed us.”

“Yes, with my friends.”

“Are they as strong as you, where you are from?”

Diana smiled. “Stronger. Wiser.” She then regaled him with stories of Themyscira, from its creation to its citizens, and Nicolas was half-asleep when his father returned with Maru.

“Have him drink this,” Maru said, handing a small tin cup to Renard.

Diana helped Nicolas sit up and his father knelt on Nicolas’ other side, holding the cup to his mouth. Nicolas drank.

“Sleep, my boy,” Renard said, slowly helping Nicolas lie down again. “You’ll be alright tomorrow.”

“Good night, Papa,” Nicolas mumbled.

Nicolas slept, but his father sat kneeling, holding his son’s hand, tears streaming down his face. Maru stood sentinel a distance away, and it dawned on Diana what had transpired.

“What have you done?” Diana demanded.

Maru closed her eyes as if expecting a blow, even though Diana had not moved from Nicolas’ side. “Too much,” she answered, “and not enough.” Then, to Renard, “I’ll leave you with your son, Monsieur.”

“Thank you, doctor,” said the man, as if Maru had cured his son instead of killing him.

“I am sorry,” said Maru, and walked away.

Diana conveyed her own sentiments to the grieving father before following Maru.

Maru’s gaze slid to Diana as she caught up with her. “You want to know why I am here.”

“Yes.”

“A short exposure to the gas will not kill someone immediately, but it is enough to damage the lungs and liver permanently. Within ten days, most of these people will die. Two, maybe three, could live, but only if they stop drinking from this river. But they will not, and so they, too, will die not long after. I will stay to ease their pain until they’re all gone, or until they find out who I am.”

Diana frowned. “If they find out who you are, they would kill you.”

Maru chuckled. “All things considered, it would not be unwelcome.”

“And if they do not?”

“I am a doctor,” Maru reminded Diana. “The time will come when I should have a taste of my own medicine.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so, so sorry this took so long to write. My head have not been kind to me lately. But here I am! Shout-out to my friend who helped me brainstorm for this story; I don't know your username, but you know who you are.

_The plane exploded, and with it her magnum opus. Maru could spare but a fleeting disappointment, however, as she was busy driving her car between debris and fire, the primary destination being away. She was aware of the two figures engaged in combat, moving too fast and destroying too much—she never believed there was such a thing as too much destruction, before_ — _and for once her primal instincts overtook her scientific curiosity. She was not in control, here._

_Something hit her car, propelling it into the air before it slammed down and rolled to its side. She was thrown to the ground and she could feel her leg scrape the ground, opening a shallow wound, but the pain mattered little when there was a woman before her with a tank in her hands and wrath on her face._

 

* * *

 

“What are you?”

They were walking to the nearest town in hope of procuring foodstuff and medicine for the remaining villagers, and with nothing to entertain themselves but each other, they had taken to talking. The matter of what manner of supplies they needed had been exhausted many times, enough that Diana knew the list by heart. She could have let Maru go back to the camp and tend to the wounded, but she decided against it.  They had been walking in silence for quite a ways when Maru blurted out her question.

Diana was considering how to word her answer when Maru continued, “The villagers seemed to think you’re a goddess, but I have heard others calling you an angel, or even a witch.”

A smile curled on the edge of Diana’s lips. “And which do you believe?”

“I don’t have much faith in gods and angels, and men will call any woman a witch if she is too clever, or too strong, or too rebellious, or too beautiful.” Maru’s tone was bitter, and at Diana’s glance she added, “They called me a witch when they thought I couldn’t hear them.”

Diana thought that Maru’s poison was not much different from witchcraft, but she kept it to herself. Instead, she said, “I am Diana of Themyscira, Daughter of Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons.” This was true enough, she supposed. In light of Ares’ claim of her parentage, she was no longer sure if she herself was an Amazon, but she was raised in Themyscira as the daughter of Hippolyta.

“The mythological Amazons?”

“It is not a myth. It is history. Embellished, perhaps, but more truth than fiction.” She saw the disbelief on Maru’s face, or what was visible of it, and said, “I could say it again with the lasso around my wrist, if you wish it.”

“Is that what you used on me before?”

Diana pulled the lasso from her waist and wrapped it around her fist. “The lasso of Hestia compels you to tell the truth. You told Monsieur Renard that you would help him when I used it on you, and that was why I let you go.”

A frown creased between Maru’s brows, then it was gone. She shook her head. “You don’t have to use it on yourself. If you are lying, you can also lie about the lasso.”

This time, it was Diana who frowned. “I do not lie.”

“Liars say that too.”

Diana knew well that Maru was right. After all, had her own mother the queen not lie to her? Hippolyta took Diana to the sword in the tower and told her she was too weak to wield the Godkiller. Hippolyta betrayed no surprise when Steve brought them news of the war. Hippolyta told Diana that their history was a mere tale. And even until Diana left with Steve to the war, Hippolyta said nothing.

No, Diana realized. Not nothing.

_“You were my greatest love, and now, you are my greatest sorrow._ ”

Perhaps Hippolyta’s lies were not only for Diana.

 

* * *

 

_There was a voice telling the woman to kill her. It seemed to come from the air itself, like thunder, and there was something familiar about it. It was as if the voice was gentle, once, almost kind. Not now, though, spitting fury and calling for her death._

_Maru kept her eyes on the woman—the same one from the gala, she realized, the one who bewitched even Ludendorff—and made no move when the hot winds tore her mask piece by piece to expose the dead tissue underneath._

_The woman would crush her with the tank; this Maru knew._

_But the woman spared her, somehow._

 

* * *

 

Diana spent the rest of the way picking apart everything her mother had ever said to her, sifting the truth from the lies. Maru had noticed the quiet, and perhaps taking it for sullenness, she asked no more questions.

They traded with what little money and valuables the Veld villagers had, and even the value of those were diminished by the war. There was enough to buy the food, but not the medicine.

“Halve the food,” Maru said, pointing to the sacks of grain Diana already put in their cart. “How much laudanum would that get us?”

“No,” Diana said. “We need the food.”

Maru was not listening to her, however, and the trader must have given her an answer because she then nodded and pointed at the sacks again. “That is acceptable. Diana?”

“We need the food. They need the food.”

“They would die. Before they die, they would lose the ability to keep their food down. They need the laudanum more.”

Diana huffed, but went to pick up the sacks while Maru paid for their purchases. She dropped the sacks none too gently; one of them split at the seams. She ignored the trader’s protests and walked away with the cart in tow.

She must have walked too fast, because it was not long until she heard Maru wheeze from several steps behind her. So, Diana let go of the cart and whirled around to face Maru.

“Was this your plan all along? To kill them?”

Maru took long wheezing breaths before saying, “I already killed them with the gas. The laudanum eases their pain. You know this.”

“Why? You do not seem like you have much compassion for them.” Even as Diana said so, she doubted it. Last night, Maru shed no tear, but she did not act ungently. It was not unlike many Amazons, even, who were kind, yet cold. And yet, she had created the gas.

And yet, she had promised help and the lasso did not burn her.

“Have you ever hunted?” Maru asked.

The sudden question took Diana aback. “Of course.”

“When you have wounded the animal, do you wait until it dies, or do you slit its throat?”

Diana remembered her first hunt, her first kill. Antiope showed her where to cut, then stepped back. The blood sprayed with more force than she had thought it would. Menalippe then taught her to skin it and clean the offal, and that night they cooked it over a fire, and there was merriment and stories.

The venison was delicious.

“They are not _animals_ ,” Diana said at length.

“No, they’re not,” said Maru. She offered no apology.

Diana picked the cart handles up again and continued walking, this time slower. “Why did you even go to Veld?” she asked.

“It was close,” Maru said, eyes forward, “and dead people need no money or jewelry.”

 

* * *

 

_Satchel in hand, she limped towards Veld. Perhaps the village had some valuables to salvage, something worth trading. Or perhaps that much gas would be strong enough to penetrate even stone walls. She was not sure. Her experiments were successful, but nothing close to this scale._

_She had to see._

_She arrived mid-morning at the edge of the gas, still faintly visible in the air.  She chose a rock a comfortable distance from the visible gas and sat down, immediately groaning in relief. Oh, but she was so tired. She could not sleep just yet, though. From her coat pocket, she took out her notebook. She took a quick look at her watch and noted down the time and estimated the diffusion rate. It was consistent with her experiments, which pleased her._

_She then took out a capsule filled with the same gas she gave Ludendorff. She broke it under her nose and inhaled, and it burned like ice through her veins. This would keep her until the gas was diffused enough to be non-lethal._

_She had to see._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, thank you for reading this. Do tell me what you think!

**Author's Note:**

> And that was the end of chapter one. I have the outline plotted out (it will be around four chapters) and I will try to update at least every weekend, if not sooner, and I hope you will stay with me until the end.
> 
> Thank you for reading! Do tell me what you think in the comments.


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